For When You Feel Disheartened | 9th October 2023

So today is the 9th of October,

2023,

And we speak about the training of the mind.

To train the mind well requires effort and perseverance,

A great deal of effort and perseverance.

Sometimes the mind is not peaceful,

It's troubled and agitated,

And one doesn't want to sit in meditation,

One doesn't want to walk meditation.

To feel this way is normal.

So we have this feeling,

And we have mindfulness with that feeling.

We know it.

We keep a watch over the mind to see how is the mind right now.

If the mind is thinking,

Agitated,

Having a lot of thoughts,

Then know that.

If the mind is aggravated or annoyed,

Then know that.

If the mind is doubting about everything,

Then know that too,

In order to give rise to wisdom.

One teaches the mind that it's not certain,

It's not lasting.

One has to find a way to be able to teach the mind,

Because to cling to anything is suffering,

Or teach the mind that clinging to anything is suffering.

When the samadhi is enough,

Or enough samadhi arises,

And wisdom can arise,

Then it's easy to teach the mind.

Then the mind is soft and receptive,

Able to take in the teaching.

But if we don't train the mind every day,

Then it's hard to teach the mind.

It's hard to teach the mind not to cling,

That everything is uncertain and impermanent.

The mind won't accept it.

The mind will be lost in all the moods and sense impressions.

If a sense impression lends itself to anger,

The mind will be angry.

If it lends itself to delusion,

The mind will be deluded.

There'll be a sense of self and me and mine.

So we have to have effort in striving,

Have mindfulness.

If we have wisdom that it's not difficult,

Then it's easy to teach the mind,

It's easy to understand.

But if we lack wisdom,

We have to patiently endure first,

Have kanti first.

So we have this quality of faith,

Belief,

A firm belief.

So we practice like this,

To have effort and patient endurance,

To have mindfulness in the present moment.

Then one will be able to abandon the sense of self and see the Dhamma.

One uses this foundation of generosity and virtue as one's support first.

We can take a look at this quality of generosity.

What is it like to have generosity,

To have giving and sacrifice all the time?

It makes the mind joyful and radiant.

This is merit and goodness,

Kusala.

It's not easy to do this.

Then we sit and listen to the Dhamma.

If the Dhamma talk is in the Thai language,

We may not understand it for the people that don't know the language.

So we sit in samadhi first,

Sit in meditation first.

We listen and we have the feeling that the Dhamma talk is about generosity,

Virtue,

Samadhi and wisdom,

About the noble eightfold path,

That the talk is about the abandoning of greed,

Aversion and delusion,

About the noble truths of suffering,

The cause of suffering,

The end of suffering and the path to the end of suffering.

So the talks,

They're all contained within these points,

Or about the cultivation of mindfulness of the body,

Of feelings,

Of the mind,

Or dhammas,

Or foundations of mindfulness.

So we listen to the talk,

We may not understand,

But we know that it's all about the Dhamma,

Contained within the Dhamma.

So we sit and listen,

We know the breath as it goes in,

The breath as it goes out.

We have mindfulness with bhoot on the in-breath and doh on the out-breath.

Then when we come to listen in English,

Then our mindfulness is ready,

We have mindfulness to watch the breath going in and out,

Or mindfulness with the body.

So we listen and we have listening with mindfulness as well.

In this way the mind can gather together.

The mind can gather and see clearly,

To see that it's all not-self.

The mind becomes empty.

There's rapture,

There's samadhi,

And this understanding of the Dhamma.

This is the seeing of the Dhamma.

So we see like this,

We see in this way.

When listening to the Dhamma,

The rapture arises,

Fullness,

Contentedness arises.

This is merit.

So this is an opportunity when the parami is ready for this intelligence or knowledge to arise.

The mind can give rise to understanding,

To knowing.

The mind understands and the mind changes all of a sudden.

Then we understand for ourselves what we've heard before,

That when the Buddha would teach the Dhamma,

It was like he showed the way to one who was lost,

Or illuminated a dark place,

Or opened that which was closed,

Or turned upright that which was overturned.

So we see that which is overturned,

The rain,

Can't come in.

But when we turn it upright,

Then the rain is able to enter it.

Or when something's closed,

We don't see into it,

We don't know it's there.

But when we open it,

Then we understand clearly.

Or pointing the way to one who is lost.

For instance,

Seeing the body as self,

And clinging to it in that way,

That's being lost.

And to illuminate the darkness is to show that brightness and illumination of seeing it as not-self.

So this is teaching the way to brightness,

Teaching the way to not-suffering.

So we have heard that this happened in the Buddha's time,

A great many individuals saw in this way.

For instance,

Like King Bimbisara,

With his four-part retinue,

Seeing the Dhamma.

This is not a small amount,

This is people with a lot of merit and goodness.

So one day,

You're listening to the Dhamma,

The mind gathers together,

Knowledge arises,

One sees the Dhamma.

The mind is,

The mind enters the stream to Nibbana.

This is the mind that's going against the stream of the world,

Is going with the stream of the Dhamma.

So therefore,

We should listen well,

This can give birth to wisdom.

This is the way to wisdom.

For myself,

I was listening to the Dhamma,

A teaching of Venerable Ajahn Chah.

The mind became very bright and saw clearly,

Saw that Nibbana was close,

Feeling like the mind was close to attaining Nibbana.

This is the mind going into the stream of Dhamma.

This is a great amount of merit.

It's able to make the defilements fall away,

Or fall off from the mind.

This is seeing the Dhamma.

So for ourselves,

We have a very good opportunity.

Our bodies are strong,

But not too old.

We're not 80 years old yet.

Once we're 80,

We don't know how it will be.

So therefore,

We build our merit and goodness,

We build our confidence.

Therefore,

When we die from this life,

We're confident that we'll have happiness going forward,

Have a happy destination,

A happy rebirth.

If we're born as a human,

Then we'll have everything in its completeness.

We won't be lacking anything.

We could be born in a time where we meet with the teachings of the Buddha again,

To build spiritual virtues again.

In this life,

We have our mother,

Father,

Our brothers and sisters,

Our family.

We may have been born together before with these individuals,

And then being born again with them in this life as well.

Having died again,

Or died in this life,

And having a rebirth,

We can meet with these individuals again,

Can meet with the mother and father,

Siblings,

Our friends from this life.

We can meet them again,

Build merit with them again,

So you can be confident about this.

We see that conditioned formations are constantly degrading,

And it reaches a point where one day we don't want to be in this world anymore.

Say if we're 90 years old,

Or 100 years old,

And since one is 90 years old,

They may feel very weary with conditioned formations,

With the body.

They don't want to eat anymore.

The body just won't take it in.

The body feels done.

This is normal.

This is the quality of degradation.

But if we have dhamma,

We see that it's just a heap of degradation,

Just a pile of degradation.

It's not self.

It's not we who are degrading.

It's just normal for the elements of nature,

For the things of the world,

For the khandhas to degrade like that.

So this is wisdom arising.

So we practice to give rise to wisdom before this degradation reaches that point.

We cultivate wisdom.

We build our wisdom while we're young.

We train in meditation to increase our merit,

To give rise to merit.

We practice walking and sitting meditation to seek the dhamma.

It's not something easy to do,

Because we need to abandon this quality of getting lost in sensuality,

Lost in the pleasures of sights and sounds,

Taste,

Smell,

Touch,

And mind objects,

Lost in these experiences of the senses that we call kammatthana,

Or craving for sensuality,

Which we are lost in every day.

We see that in the end we end up wasting a lot of time.

It's not something we do with mindfulness and samadhi.

Then later when we meet with suffering,

With dukkha,

This getting lost in sensuality is of no help to us.

So one with knowledge will seek out samadhi,

Seek out this quality of peace and collectedness of mind,

And this samadhi is able to help us.

For instance,

Being mindful of the in and out breathing,

This is very important.

It can help us.

For instance,

When I had malaria,

There was a great deal of pain,

Bodily weight,

And the illness was strong.

The medicine was strong as well,

So I was fighting with that.

Then mindfulness with the breath,

And the mind became peaceful and still.

The mind was able to rest in samadhi.

Then having exited from that samadhi,

The condition wasn't as bad.

Then entered samadhi again.

So this is the dhamma caring for one who practices the dhamma,

Or the dhamma supporting one who cares for the dhamma.

So we see that clearly,

The dhamma supports those who practice it.

So therefore,

May we train in the dhamma to cultivate first,

To make it into a power,

A strength in our mind,

The strength or power of mindfulness,

The strength of samadhi.

So may you have effort and perseverance in striving with this.

To have mindfulness with the body,

To practice sitting and walking,

And just to do it,

Not to get tired or weary of it,

But to keep striving,

To see the quality of dukkha clearly.

We see in this life that all beings must die.

One has to give up everything in the end.

For monastics,

They've sacrificed a lot already to become monastics.

So therefore,

May you strive in meditation,

Because monastics,

They don't want anything from the world already,

They just should practice,

Practice to see the dhamma.

One can see if even if one could be the sole owner,

The sole possessor of everything in the world,

Then one sees that there's no essence,

There's no value to any of it,

Because it doesn't last,

Because it's impermanent,

Because this body is impermanent.

So what can we take with us when we die?

We see that people in the world keep wanting,

Wanting to accumulate,

But one who's intelligent will share that wealth that's accumulated.

One who's not intelligent will just keep storing it away until they die,

And if they are born again,

Still not intelligent,

They'll just keep storing it away in that life until they die again.

But we see that no one can take anything with them when they go,

So an intelligent person will know the building of merit,

The building of parami,

Spiritual virtue,

And this is really worth rejoicing in.

One who's intelligent will give and sacrifice,

Cultivate the spiritual perfection of generosity to help to assist with the four requisites,

Giving to society,

Giving to the needy,

Whatever things others may need that they can use to help people in suffering.

This is a spiritual virtue,

A parami,

And it's a practice worth rejoicing in.

So for the monastic sangha having everything they need,

Then they must practice,

Do the morning and evening chanting,

Practice meditation,

Practice chanting,

Not to be heedless,

But to be sincere,

And one day wisdom can arise,

Or one day wisdom will arise,

It's not beyond our capacity.

If one is thinking a lot,

Then just keep practicing,

Keep walking,

Reciting buto,

Buto,

Or counting 1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

While walking,

Counting one's steps,

One can keep mala beans with one at all times,

Reciting buto,

Dhammo,

Sangho,

Chanting it to be so,

To keep the mind with this,

To bring the mind to peace and collectedness,

To strive and to set one's heart on it.

So one who is sincere and intent,

They want to strive,

They want to know how is it,

What is it like to see the dhamma,

What's that experience like,

And one thinking like this,

Thinking this practice,

Realizing stream entry sounds very good,

There's no eighth life,

There's no rebirth in hell anymore,

And so it sounds very good,

And one feels like a strong desire to practice because there's this fear of hell,

A strong fear of hell,

So one strives to practice,

The mind gathers together,

One sees that it's all not self,

One sees convention,

Rapture arises for three days and three nights,

This is an unforgettable experience,

One isn't hungry,

One's not sleepy,

But one feels full,

And it's a heavenly type of fullness,

A fullness in the dhamma,

If one has enough money,

Then whatever one wants to eat,

One can eat that,

One can obtain that food,

But in this state of fullness,

One doesn't want to eat anything,

But if one has the wealth to obtain whatever one would want,

Then one can feel like they don't even know what to choose,

They feel weary,

They feel tired of all the choices,

They don't know what to choose,

This is the problem of someone who has a lot,

And if one doesn't have that kind of wealth or opportunity,

Then one doesn't know how one will get what one wants to eat,

So you see this,

The dhamma gives this great fullness and rapture,

Contentedness,

More than any food could give one,

So therefore we practice generosity,

Virtue,

Meditation,

Support the buddhasasana,

The buddha's dispensation in all ways,

And this is really worth rejoicing with,

Worth saying this how to,

So in terms of this practice,

I often think of Venerable Yasa,

Who had everything,

All types of wealth,

But he went to seek the dhamma,

Went to understand the dhamma,

The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths,

And he listened and was able to see the dhamma,

And on the second listening,

He was able to realize full awakening,

Arahantship,

This is from the parami,

The spiritual virtues being built in the past,

So in this lifetime,

Whether you're a lay person or a monastic,

May you strive,

May you have sincerity and apply yourself,

In the end,

One must meet with the dhamma and see the dhamma,

Understand the dhamma,

And to see the dhamma deeper,

One contemplates the body,

Contemplates the subha,

As I've explained before,

So may you all set your hearts on this.